[Jim K]

True, some folks do say, correctly, that something is wrong, sometimes without knowing themselves excactly what it is. The thing is that some of us have seen and handled dozens, maybe hundreds, of genuine percussion revolvers of that era, and may even own one or more. We often need little more than a glance to be able to say, "Something's wrong", even though it may take a while to point out the specific problems. The "something" may be anything from a cold blue job to a complete fake, like the Musser Patersons of a bygone era that are now themselves highly collectible - and a lot rarer than genuine Patersons.

Neither bragging or complaining, but I have no idea how many Colt and Remington percussion revolvers I have handled, and in some cases, repaired, but it certainly has been in the hundreds. And that doesn't count Starrs, Whitneys, Coopers, Bacons, etc.

Can I be fooled by a good copy or a good restoration? I am sure that I can, but it would have to be good enough to fool real experts. There is just something about the old guns that is hard to fake. And all the factory repros have little changes, sometimes subtle, deliberately made so that it is hard to turn them into fakes.

Good luck with your gun, and I hope you have better news the next time.

Jim